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There's an article on The Atlantic Wire today that fits in with some stuff I've been thinking about, regarding my own GPS usage, and stupidification.
GPS Smartphones and Dumbing Down Personal Navigation
I consider myself a Map Head. Since the advent of Google Maps, I picture myself as the little human dot, glowing on the map, whenever I am thinking about my physical location in reference to directions. I've always had a good sense of direction, I learned to read a map really young, and would navigate my desperately directionally challenged mother & myself across 1000 miles every summer, just by using our trusty Atlas and a bevy of hotel books (remember those?).
I would *rarely* be lost - it's like my superpower. But since having an iPhone, I've actually found myself hopelessly lost on a couple of occasions, since I was relying on the device to tell me what was what, and not what I could see, and what was in my brains. I'd found myself relying on it more and more to tell me where things are, instead of remembering their location, using landmarks and street names to navigate.
It was the recent construction that really clued me in as to it happening. I basically got "lost" in my own town. It was ridiculous. Since, I'm actively trying to use my GPS less - and trying to go back to more standard navigation skills.
And I wonder - are y'all experiencing anything similar? What about the folks for whom GPS navigation has always been the way to get around... doesn't that create a strange vulnerability?
Not to mention all the stuff that goes along with algorithmic directions.... it's such a terrible idea, on so many levels.
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